Teaching our kids about Poland's History

I have a question.. Why is it that any other countries than Poland, dosn't lean the kids about Polish history ?

I mean, we lean about Napolion and the frensh revolution, about English and plenty of other histories and big people including.. but, what does people know about Poland ? Do they have ANY clue about who the Polish king Sobieski was ??

The king who fighted and won over the muslim occupation in Europe ? it is founded out they several european king has contact the polish king and asked for help, and thanks to the Polish king, they defeated the muslims.. but does people know that ? What couldn't Europe have looked like today, if it wasn't for king Sobieski ?

and WW2.. It was the Polish who spotted "Peenemunde" it whas the Polish who defeated Monte Cassino, and before the WW2, the Polish and Lithuan union ? one of the biggest in the world.. and later the Polish defeated the SOVIET union trops in 1920, the Russians would have go further in to the western Europe, I could go on whit anything you know..

What is wrong, since the other countries don't want to teach kids in Poland ? The polish history have a very GREAT infuence in western europe !! its a fact..

Just a thought.

The history tells us Poland and Poles are to do the dirty job - then when the job is done, other nations forget about it and take all the splendor (and money)...

Well, I think that our history is quite well known in Eastern Europe. It`s only the people in Western Europe who associate Poland only with Solidarity, the WWII defeat and the partitions. Whereby that last issue is quite well known becaouse of the German/Russian propaganda, who after Poland was gone for a while from the map - during the XIX century both the Russians and the Germans had plenty of time to spread various propaganda about us (some elements of that XIX century propaganda is still present in various stereotypes about us) as well as to promote their achievments and their history over ours.

Beside the schoolsystem in many Western European countries dosn`t put much impact on history overall. I know that in many cases the children in Germany and the UK beside the most basic facts don`t know about the history of THEIR countries and if the aren`t interested in history by their own their school isn`t going to provide them any information beyoned the most basic issues (or in some cases even the most basic issues are omited)

And why Polish history isn`t known outside of Europe very well - European history outside of Europe isn`t very well known to non-Europeans. They know/are interested in the European history as much as we are know/are interested in the American/Chinese/Japanese/Indian/Persian/Arab history.


Well, the same can be said about Americans. They saved Europe only 61 and 88 years ago.
We`ve saved Europe 86 and 323 years ago. In both cases noone really cares about it

Beside it`s interesting to see how some countries - those who were very powerful during the XIX century had hijacked the European history and the effect of this that you can see untill this day. It`s not only the Polish history that has been treated this way the same you can say also i.e. about the Turks - who for almost 500 years ruled over one of the Worlds most powerful Empires, that could fight with a combined force of most European countries for a very long time.. The Portugese, who for a very long time had one of the world`s largest mercantile/colonial empires.. Sweden, who for a very long time as was a military superpower (and I`m not talking here about the Vigings - but about the XVII-XVIII century).. or Spain, who perhaps is a little bit more known in England, but here (Poland) Spain is only being associated with the Reconquista, Inqisition, Columbus and the Spanish Civil War (well probably in some other countries in Europe Spain is being associated even with less)

Wlazski your english suck's and you are spelling a lot of word's incorrectly.

Spelling is not important on these boards. It's making a valid point that counts.

His English isn`t perfect but I can very well understand what he`s writing.

And your comment is not relevant at all in this case.


Well that's a point. I live in Denmark for an example, and the history teaching here is only about the Western Europe, you don't lean anything about the Eastern Europe.. It could sound a little bit like we still have the Berlin wall, talking about history teaching.. And I can't figure out why that is.. !!

Most Americans don't know American history and most people don't care about historical accuracy.

The majority of Americans do know their history. It's just that with so much immigration and illegals in this country our history is put on the back burner.

"A nation that is forgetting its past is also loosing its future"

Marshal Jozef K. Pilsudski

good point but not correct.

[Moved from]: How old children to go to school in 1930 in Poland?

How old did a child have to be to start school in Poland in 1930?Thankyou.

I think there was no specified age back then (some people didnt' even know when they were born). I assume 7-10 year old.

I judged the Poles by their enemies.
And I found it was an almost unfailing truth that their enemies were the enemies of magnanimity and manhood.
If a man loved slavery, if he loved usury,
if he loved terrorism and all the trampled mire of materialistic politics,
I have? always found that he added to these affections the passion of a hatred of Poland.
She could be judged in the light of? that hatred;
and the judgment has proved to be right."
Gilbert Keith Chesterton

I don't think Western Europe doesn't really care for a country which in their eyes never were an "Empire"

Let's check the spelling then:

english - should be English
suck's - sould be sucks
word's - should be words

So, coward Guest, you have some work to do. Live what you preach and don't post here until you improve your spelling skills.

That's nearly a four year old post you're replying to and in those days many posters were guests.

I took it up as making a new one about the same topic would be moronic
It is sad that not only do ppl not teach about Polish history in their history books except for 1939 with some horse charge. Also I understand that history has been given an lower priority which is quite sad

Since we all know that Poland's history is not well known in the world, we must ask ourselves what exactly can we do about it?

Besides making ourselves a supereconomic power and projecting it abroad via sheer influence, of course.

Quite a lot, make a good movie for example, the last good historic movie was "The Deluge" "With Fire and Sword" sucked dirty orifice by comparison.

Also good marketing, make PC games about our history, enter the mainstream with MacDonalds version of it, our history is enough to make 1000 awesome movies yet no one touches it because Polish cinematography sucks.

Hello,
I'm from poland and I think all schools in US should teach polish history.
Look at basic information about history :)

Here links:
bit.ly/agkHuK
re upload
tinyurl/ydfu45j

Thanks and lets read it!

I'm in Poland and very much think that Polish schools should start teaching Polish history properly: i.e. the bits which show Poland in a good light and a bad light.

Good for you.

I think that all schools in Poland should teach Guatemalan history.

In U.S. they do not teach about U.S. history so good luck with that.

Well unfortunately in France as well, kids learn nothing or almost nothing about Polish history and what they learn from history is only Western history and the Western side of it...

I understand they also don't learn anything about Swiss history. Terrible. No Guatemalan history either.

It's wishful thinking to imagine that a non-Polish country would have as part of its curriculum Polish history per se.

One possible remedy is if you are Polish and have a child and your kid is interested, then let your child introduce aspects of Polish history to the class via self prescribed essay or by linking it to existing topics (ie when there is discussion of habeas corpus, the Polish neminem captivabimus can be introduced: Greek/Roman democracy can introduce Polish democracy: the American Constitution can introduce the 3 May Constitution and so on).

you know teaching Polish it's starts at home, I will teach my kids Polish history, English , french, German, Russian and other I will not allow some ******* to teach my kids history of Poland.

My daughter is age 9 and we live in England. She is doing a project on Poland (including history). Not all schools cover history beyond the UK but some do and expect children to have a broad understanding and knowledge of the contributions made by different countries that have led to the way we live today.

I teach my kids about history of Poland. I tell them how Poles, due to their stupidity and negligence and lack of patriotism eventually greatly contributed to partitions, i.e., losing their country for 123 years.

mate im 17 and and i live in australia and no everything about our history(polish not australian) my school didnt teach us anything about eastern europe we spent 2 years learning about aboriginal history which is one of the most boring cultures in the world yet we must suck up to them here in australia aka where a nanny state i would of loved to learn about polish history in school because there so much to learn and it breaks my heart that even alot of poles no nothing of the kat'lyn massiare and th breaking of the seige of veinna

Ya I live in Canada they did not say ANYTHING about Poland in any history class
(Elementary or High school... in College I never took any history)

Okay okay there are 2 exceptions:

1)Copernicus was Polish
2)Poland was invaded by Germany to start WWII.

Other than that NOTHING.

It was not until after elementary school that I started to learn about Polish history and damn I loved reading about it... except the parts where we lost :D

This reminds me of Bush saying dont forget Poland when the stuff in the Middle East/Asia started to happen.